The Client Letter
March 28, 2013
Way “North of Lake Wobegon”
Sunny 21 Degrees
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Over the years, I’ve been quite fortunate to receive some excellent sales training for some truly awful jobs.
The second job, which I’ve spoken about in previous letters, was my brief career selling cars.
Before that, I worked at a major bank. Banks are interesting animals.
They keep people’s imaginary money, create more out of thin air that they rent out to others at a profit, and then protect the whole pile of electrons with a bunch of rules/regulations/dos and don’ts.
In a word, it’s a culture of fear of loss run by people who have been trained not to lose.
Banks play NOT to lose. I didn’t know back then what a recipe for misery that is in life, but I know now.
I am grateful for my time there, however, because I believe it was during my banking days that I learned NOT to ask yes/no questions in a sales situation. (This was later confirmed by the training I received on the car lot.)
Asking yes/no questions with a prospective client doesn’t tell you much. But it’s worse than that. Asking yes/no questions can make it seem like you’ve learned something when you really haven’t.
Instead, yes/no questions are an excellent way to lead yourself to assumptions about what you think you know. These assumptions can very easily get you in trouble down the line.
For example, let’s say I’m talking to a prospective client about a copywriting project and I decide to ask a yes/no question.
I say, “So Mr. Client, tell me, have you ever worked with a direct response copywriter before?”
“Oh yes,” he says, “Many times. We’ve worked with 4 of them in the last year…”
Now I know that my best clients tend to be ones that have already worked with copywriters. When that’s the case, I know there’s a good chance I’m talking to someone who “gets” it.
And so I assume that I’m one step closer to a new client.
Sadly, my yes/no question has led me to believe something that isn’t true.
Let’s try that again…
I say, “So Mr. Client, can you tell me about your experiences with previous direct response copywriters you’ve worked with…?”
“Oh yes, we’ve worked with 4 of them in the last year… the results have been pretty good. But for some reason, we haven’t been able to find someone who we feel is a good fit for our organization.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. With a single open ended question, we’ve uncovered something requiring further investigation.
Because what the prospect has just said is either an opportunity for us to shine or it’s a red flag that the issue has nothing to do with the copywriters.
And so another question… “Can you describe what a copywriter who IS a ‘good fit’ might look like?”
And we peel and peel and peel. Just like an onion without the tears.
If you’ve never tried it, consider banning yes/no questions from your toolkit for a few weeks, see what happens.
It’s extremely simple AND extremely powerful. And the effects are immediate.
And if you want a way to master this question asking skill fast (it’s worth the work), then this will help.